■"Russia's Courts Go on Trial: Yukos Case Bears Witness to Series of Defects in Legal System," by Guy Chazan, Wall Street Journal, 23 May 2005, p. A11.

■"China Is Considering A Currency Basket As Option for Yuan," by Mary Kissell, Wall Street Journal, 23 May 2005, p. C1.

These two New Core states showing very different faces right now: Russia looking unfriendly to business through the actions of its predatory courts and tax collection agencies, and China trying to placate the Old Core on currency convertibility (meaning getting the yuan off its fixed peg on the dollar). While Putin seems intent on settling old political scores, Jintao seems intent on avoiding economic clashes by considering a yuan pegged to a basket of currencies.

Makes you wonder why China is the big worry of the Big War strategists in the Pentagon and not Russia, doesn't it?

Ah well, it's all about money on both sides: China is growing and so has enough to grow its military as well, and that's the image needed by Big War strategists in the Air Force and Navy to justify their stances against cuts in big-ticket items in favor of more spending on the SysAdmin-taxed Army and Marines.

Big War needs Chinaóand badly. But the Gap needs the SysAdmin force, and so do any Americans who'd like to reach a finishing line in this Global War on Terror.